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30 Years of ARTC – The Man Who Traveled in Elephants

This being our 30th anniversary, we thought we’d dip back into the past and recap some of our previous performances, triumphs and tragedies, in a series of posts. And don’t forget our Chronology! It’s not as detailed, but it really shows the growth of ARTC over the years.

In 1998, ARTC experienced an important moment in its history as we unveiled the first in our Dean’s List series of Robert A. Heinlein adaptations, The Man Who Traveled in Elephants. And, boy, did we go all out. You can see all of the below photos at full size in our Flickr gallery.

First, if you’ve read the story, you may notice that it’s not quite like anything else that Heinlein wrote for the most part. In fact, Bill Ritch and Brad Linaweaver, who were instrumental in helping us get the rights from Virginia Heinlein to do this adaptation, described it as “Bradburyesque,” referring to legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Wouldn’t it be fun, we imagined, if we could get Ray Bradbury to introduce us?

Ray Bradbury introduces Atlanta Radio Theatre Company at Dragon Con 1998
Ray Bradbury introduces Atlanta Radio Theatre Company at Dragon Con 1998.

So that happened. You can even hear the recording of the introduction on our studio production of the script.* Then, how about a bunch of guest stars. Like maybe Anthony Daniels. Or even Harlan Ellison, a legendary writer in his own right!

Anthony Daniels and Harlan Ellison share a stage with Daniel Taylor of ARTC.
Anthony Daniels and Harlan Ellison share a stage with Daniel Taylor of ARTC.

So that happened, too. And then we’d cap the whole thing off by making it a tribute to the Dean of American Science Fiction himself.

A tribute to Robert A. Heinlein with Harlan Ellison, Brad Linaweaver, and William Alan Ritch.
A tribute to Robert A. Heinlein with Harlan Ellison, Brad Linaweaver, and William Alan Ritch.

The presence of scream queen Brinke Stevens in our opening piece, A Real Babe (by Brad Linaweaver, adapted for audio by William Alan Ritch) was just the icing on the cake.

Scream queen Brinke Stevens in
Scream queen Brinke Stevens in “A Real Babe”.

It was a performance for the ages. It was something nobody on the stage will ever forget.

*The Man Who Traveled in Elephants is currently available for sale exclusively at our live performances. We are hopeful to bring it back to general release in the near future through all of our digital and mail order distributors.

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All You Zombies… Part 3 of 3

This month: Size: 6.9M Duration: 14:40

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This month we bring you All You Zombies… by Robert A. Heinlein, adapted for audio by Victor Koman, performed live at the Heinlein Centennial Convention in Kansas City, MO, July 7, 2007.

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All You Zombies… Part 2 of 3

This month: Size: 8.2M Duration: 17:35

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This month we bring you All You Zombies… by Robert A. Heinlein, adapted for audio by Victor Koman, performed live at the Heinlein Centennial Convention in Kansas City, MO, July 7, 2007.

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All You Zombies… Part 1 of 3

This month: Size: 7.93M Duration: 17:20

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This month we bring you All You Zombies… by Robert A. Heinlein, adapted for audio by Victor Koman, performed live at the Heinlein Centennial Convention in Kansas City, MO, July 7, 2007.

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Our Fair City part 1 of 2

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This month we bring you Our Fair City by Robert A. Heinlein, adapted for audio by Brad Strickland and Thomas E. Fuller, performed live at LibertyCon in Chattanooga, TN on July 11, 2009. This is part of our Dean’s List series, available through our website.

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Solution Unsatisfactory part 3 of 3

Size: 8.4M Duration: 17:51

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This week we are pleased to continue our podcast of the Dragon*Con 2001 production of Robert A. Heinlein’s Solution Unsatisfactory.  Guest starring in this production are Peter David and Lisa Getto.

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Solution Unsatisfactory part 2 of 3

Size: 8.4M Duration: 17:53

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This week we are pleased to continue our podcast of the Dragon*Con 2001 production of Robert A. Heinlein’s Solution Unsatisfactory.  Next week will feature the third and final part.  Following this will be our five part podcast of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth, featuring Harlan Ellison.

Guest starring in this production are Peter David and Lisa Getto.

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Solution Unsatisfactory part 1 of 3

Duration: 18:57 Size: 8.8M

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Back in 2001 we performed an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’sSolution Unsatisfactory.  As you might expect, we were very proud and excited to present a work by such a well-regarded author.  And since it was written in 1941 we were already aware that Mr. Heinlein had seemingly seen the future of world events by predicting the use of atomic weapons, although in a different form.

Little did we realize how memorable this performance would become.  Performed live on August 31, we planned studio time for September 12, 2001.  Needless to say we moved this production up in the queue.

Guest starring in this production are Peter David and Lisa Getto.

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Conclusions

Duration: 18:40, Size: 8.7M

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Everything must come to an end.  And so it goes with the serial we’ve been bringing you for the last three weeks, “The Adventures of the Crimson Hawk: The Crimson and the Red” by Thomas E. Fuller [EDIT 4-21: Whoops!  This episode was written by William Alan Ritch!].  This is the third and final installment in this particular saga, but there’s plenty more where that came from.  We currently have almost twenty adventures of the Crimson Hawk, so if you like them be sure to let us know!

Also this week we bring you an ARTC favorite, “Bumpers Crossroads: Hide, A Cow’s Outside” by Daniel Taylor.  The last word on the end of a lot of bad jokes.  This was recorded live at the Gwinnett History Center back in 1999.

And lest you forget that we have more recent work available, there’s also a short sample from our studio release of Robert A. Heinlein’s “The Menace From Earth”.